Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

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Kirawa
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:46 am

Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Kirawa » Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:01 pm

Recently I've been experiencing massive audio crackling and drop out with Live 9.1.7
When I set my buffer size to 128, the session samples start to crack and drop out which is annoying :x but if I set my buffer size to 256 it doesn't drop out but there is a slight noticeable latency when recording my guitar.
Is there a way around. I've tired almost all the method but to no avail. Any help will be appreciated.
My Specs:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20
Intel i5 3.1Ghz
8GB RAM
Samsung evo pro SSD 512GB
Seagate 1TB 6gb/s
Windows 7

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Stromkraft » Mon Apr 06, 2015 4:53 pm

Kirawa wrote:Recently I've been experiencing massive audio crackling and drop out with Live 9.1.7
When I set my buffer size to 128, the session samples start to crack and drop out which is annoying :x but if I set my buffer size to 256 it doesn't drop out but there is a slight noticeable latency when recording my guitar.
Is there a way around. I've tired almost all the method but to no avail. Any help will be appreciated.
My Specs:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20
Intel i5 3.1Ghz
8GB RAM
Samsung evo pro SSD 512GB
Seagate 1TB 6gb/s
Windows 7
Well, it could be you're overloading one of the cores. You need to check that. It could possibly also be Intel Speedstep issues, so try and find a way to turn that off for your processor. I think it's comparably easy to check for such issues and turn that off on Windows, though I haven't done it myself.

Have you read the article How to avoid crackles and audio drop-outs? You'll find some other ideas there to try first.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Thu Apr 16, 2015 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Make some music!

Kirawa
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:46 am

Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Kirawa » Tue Apr 07, 2015 2:19 am

Stromkraft wrote: Well, it could be you're overloading one of the cores. You need to check that. It could possibly also be Intel Speedstep issues, so try and find a way to turn that off for your processor. I think it's comparably easy to check for such issues and turn that off on Windows, though I haven't done it myself.

Have you read the article How to avoid crackles and audio drop-outs? You'llfind some other ideas there to try first.
I've tried enabling 4 cores from my ASUS utility setting but still having issues with random pops and clicks. When I set my buffer size to 256 the pops and clicks will be gone BUT I'll experience a 28.3ms latency when recording my drums and guitars. Do you think lowering the Driver Error Compensation helps? I have set the value to -13 on the Driver Error Compensation which makes the overall latency to 15ms.

Quez
Posts: 142
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 5:53 pm
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Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Quez » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:28 pm

I must be nuts to be fine with +-25ms latency. I remember aeons ago in the age of 486 (or pentium 1?), when I hit a key, I had to wait at least one second to hear the sound play on my dad laptop.

But well anyway, you may want to adjust your buffer depending on what you're doing. I have to do that sometimes. My MBPr has pretty bad latency..

UltimateOutsider
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:02 am
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by UltimateOutsider » Wed Apr 08, 2015 7:56 pm

Kirawa wrote:Recently I've been experiencing massive audio crackling and drop out with Live 9.1.7
When I set my buffer size to 128, the session samples start to crack and drop out which is annoying :x but if I set my buffer size to 256 it doesn't drop out but there is a slight noticeable latency when recording my guitar.
Is there a way around. I've tired almost all the method but to no avail. Any help will be appreciated.
You have already discovered how increasing your sample buffer improves audio reliability at the cost of some additional latency.

The cheapest, easiest workaround is to leave your sample buffer adequately high and use direct monitoring while tracking instead of monitoring through your DAW. I haven't used your interface before, but I'm guessing the "D/M" switch on the front panel is for direct monitoring your inputs? You will also need to make sure to set your track monitoring to OFF on the track you're recording- if you don't do this, not only will you hear phasing while your DAW audio mixes with the interface audio, but Live won't do any latency compensation on the recorded track, guaranteeing that it's out of sync on playback.

The only problem with this is that if you are the type of guitarist (or vocalist) who likes to hear effects on your playing/singing while recording, you can't do that while direct monitoring unless your interface is equipped with built-in DSP effects. If you need to be able to hear effects while you track (and your interface doesn't have built-in DSP), then you might look into upgrading to a faster computer and/or an interface with better low-latency performance. For USB interfaces, no other manufacturer is even close to RME, but Steinberg and MOTU both offer better-than-average USB performance.

EDIT: Also, the driver error compensation thing is different from just regular latency compensation. Live has a built-in tutorial that walks you through setting the correct error compensation value, but it will normally be a very small number, and will not address the problem that you're talking about.

Kirawa
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:46 am

Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Kirawa » Thu Apr 09, 2015 4:33 am

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah I was thinking of going direct monitoring as my last option till I figured out the problem to my random pops and clicks. My SSD was set to IDE mode and I had to change it to AHCI mode on my BIOS settings and viola no pops and clicks and my overall latency is 12ms. Now I can go back to a smooth recording session.

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Need HELP with Audio crackling & drop out.

Post by Stromkraft » Thu Apr 16, 2015 9:00 am

Kirawa wrote:Thanks for the input guys. Yeah I was thinking of going direct monitoring as my last option till I figured out the problem to my random pops and clicks. My SSD was set to IDE mode and I had to change it to AHCI mode on my BIOS settings and viola no pops and clicks and my overall latency is 12ms. Now I can go back to a smooth recording session.
That's great information. I found an older lengthy article at Benchmarkreviews.com that made some tests into this aspect in 2010. SSD Benchmark Tests: SATA IDE vs AHCI Mode. While from 2010, it's still useful if one needs detailed info.

Overall, I think AHCI is a natural default. I have no idea what my SSD is set to… Let me check. Yeah, it's AHCI.
Make some music!

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